McDonald's sets goal of recycling, 100% sustainable packaging by 2025

The company expects its efforts to drive smarter packaging designs, to implement new recycling programs, to establish new measurement programs and to educate staff and customers.

McDonald's began purchasing sustainable beef in 2016, and it plans to completely eliminate foam packaging by the end of this year.

The company will aim to get 100 percent of its packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources by 2015, with a preference for Forest Stewardship Council certification, which ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests. This is to have recycling for guest packaging available at all of its restaurants by 2025.

Fast-food behemoth McDonald's Corp.

To make customers feel better about eating the food, McDonald's has come up with a plan to make its bags, cups, and wrappers better for the environment.

"Working with different municipalities to put the infrastructure in place is going to be the most complex piece of work that we do", DeBiase said.

"In recent years we have carried out waste audits in our restaurants, and extensive research asking what initiatives New Zealanders would like us to prioritise", McDonald's New Zealand managing director Dave Howse said.

"As the world's largest restaurant company, we have the opportunity - and frankly responsibility - to use our scale for good", McDonald's chief supply chain and sustainability officer told Business Insider.

"Today, McDonald's continues to raise the sustainability bar by setting ambitious goals and collaborating with partners across the value chain for maximum impact".

The announcement is an expansion of the chain's previous goal of converting all of its fiber-based packaging to that sourced from recycled or certified sources where no deforestation occurs by 2020.

In order to attain these goals, McDonald's will work with leading industry experts, local governments and environmental associations to improve packaging and recycling practices.

McDonald's has more than 37,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.